From Barbarossa to Odessa: The Luftwaffe and Axis Allies Strike South-East June - October 1941, Vol. 1: The Air Battle for Bessarabia: 22 June-31 July 1941

From Barbarossa to Odessa: Volume 1. is the first of two volumes on the air combat which took place on the southern flank of the Eastern Front following Operation Barbarossa. The period covered in this first book saw the occupation of Bessarabia and southwest Ukraine and concluded when the Germans captured the area s regional capital, Odessa, on October 16, 1941. It was one of the most bitter and intensive air campaigns fought in the east, because local Soviet commanders had dispersed most of their assets in time, thus preventing their destruction on the ground. This gave them the ability to respond effectively to the combined Axis onslaught. Accordingly, the Red Air Force was able to achieve some of its greatest successes of 1941 in this little-studied campaign.
This book covers the often overlooked involvement of aircraft from Axis states other than Germany, such as the Romanians, who claimed a total of over 600 air victories, the Hungarians, the Slovaks, and even the Bulgarians. This makes the subject varied and of great interest, particularly because of the large variety of aircraft types employed by both sides, all of which are fully documented. Aided by a large number of previously unpublished photographs, the book tells the story of the campaign from both sides and provides detailed eyewitness accounts from individual pilots who were involved in the fighting. Besides day-to-day operations, appendices will contain comprehensive victory and loss lists.